What the newspapers say: August 27, 2009

Most Romanian newspapers on Thursday report the success of Madonna's first concert in Romania last night. Also in the news today, a paper shows Romania is the only country which has not yet signed a European Code of conduct on military procurements. And as the end of the parliamentary holiday gets near another newspaper reports about the parliamentarians' efforts to dodge talking with their own voters.

Adevarul writes that Madonna gave some 60,000 Romanian fans two unforgettable hours last night, despite that some people left before the singer's first gig in the country was over. She sang for "beautiful Romanian women", as some spectator put it, referring to Eastern European influences in some of her mid-show songs. Highlights of the show: she spoke of discrimination, she danced with Russian Gypsies and kissed one of her female dancers.

Madonna had Romania at her feet, headlines Evenimentul Zilei, reporting that the show brought more fans than other major concerts Romania has seen for the past several years, including Depeche mode, Rolling Stones or George Michael. At her first show in Romania, the singer who angered all the churches in the world proved to be only an artist of talent, energy and sophistication, the paper reads.

For its part, Gandul reports that the organization of the concert in a large park in downtown Bucharest, close to the Parliament Palace, left much room for improvement. But that is because Bucharest does not have large enough stadiums for the time being to host a major event such as this. As landmark Lia Manoliu stadium is currently being rebuilt, all other venues are improper for such shows and that is why bands like U2 would not come to Romania, according to the paper.

Elsewhere in the news, Cotidianul reports that Romania is the only EU member state which refused twice so far to sign a European code of conduit for military procurements. The code was introduced for a better transparency of military trade and encourage the constitution of a European military market.Cotidianul also reports that five ministries - Justice, Interior, Transports, Economy and Labor - are the main beneficiaries of a budget rectification applied by the Boc Government, in the disadvantage of the Health, Education and Defense Ministries.

And with the Parliamentary vacation soon to end, Romania libera reports that MPs are doing all their best to stay away from their voters, despite that during the summer days off MPs have to work in the constituencies where they were elected. But MPs prove talented in finding strategies to keep voters away, like opening offices far from their own constituency or claiming they out for work.